Sivas Military Court
overruled Military Court of Appeal decision on Mehmet Tarhan
Javier Garate, War Resisters' International, 15 December 2005

On 15th of
December the Military Court of Sivas overruled the Military Court
Appeal decision (see co alert 3 November 2005
http://wri-irg.org/news/alerts/msg00049.html). The Sivas
Military Court still stick with their former decision of four
years of imprisonment for Mehmet Tarhan. The case is to be sent
back to the Military Court of Appeal again. This time the case
will be considered at the General Board of Appeals which is
composed of all the presidents of the Appeal Courts.

The Public Prosecutor, regarding the recommendation from the
Military Court of Appeal to force Tarhan to have a physical
examination to determine whether he was gay and therefore unfit
for the military service, said at court, "Homosexuality can not be
determined via physical examination and that forced physical
examination violated a person's bodily integrity."

Also the Public Prosecutor said that trying someone twice for the
same crime was ridiculous.
Mehmet Tarhan's lawyer tried to¬ bring the case back to the issue
of conscientious objection, instead of the homosexuality issue but
today's court decision didn't take into consideration what was
said either by the Public Prosecutor or by Mehmet's lawyer.

The court said that they are sticking to their former decision.
Mehemet Tarhan's lawyer will appeal the case again.
Mehemet Tarhan had been arrested in Izmir¬ on 8 April 2005, and
has by now been charged twice¬ with "insubordination in front of
his unit" At a trial on 12 July 2005, the two separate cases of
insubordination had been joined, and were then tried together.

Tarhan had been on a first hunger strike from 25 May to 21 June
2005, to protest against maltreatment and the authorities'
inability to protect him in prison. He ended his hunger strike
after 28 days, after the prison authorities accepted his demands
(see co-alert,
22 June
2005). Tarhan had been briefly released from military prison
following a trial session on 9 June 2005 (see co-alert,
22 June
2005), but had been brought back to his military unit, where
he was again given a military order, which he refused. This lead
to the second charge, and a second trial on 12 July, where the
decision was taken to join the two cases.